HIGH Legh WI’s speaker David Tideswell has been in love with robins for as long as he can remember.

Amongst the treasures he showed us were his Dad’s Robin Redbreast tobacco tin and a superb set of photos showing the feathers developing on chicks in his garden nestbox.

He even showed us a photo of a robin nestling in his Dad’s old tobacco tin.

The robin is Britain’s national bird, with an estimated 6.7 million nesting pairs. Male robins are fiercely territorial, although female robins can migrate as far as north Africa.

We were given some tips on attracting robins to our gardens – plant berried shrubs – and leave some old forks amongst them, to act as perches.

Robins drink at least twice a day, so make sure they can find clean water. Hungry parents particularly enjoy hidden mealworms. Do put up a nestbox, ideally partly hidden amongst ivy or shrubs and leave some nesting material like tumble drier fluff or hair clippings nearby.

David urged us to give a robin nestbox as the ideal wedding gift!

David’s fascinating and hilarious talk brought tears of laughter to the eyes and some food for thought for the brain.

High Legh’s WI Bowling Team was given a great round of applause for winning through to the finals of the Cheshire WI Bowling Competition.

High Legh WI’s next meeting is the AGM and we were promised a short demonstration on Christmas table flower arrangements on November 10 in High Legh Village Hall at 7.30pm.

Visitors are very welcome.